Richards’ Quarries & Concrete

STEPHEN RICHARDS of Richards’ Quarries & Concrete, Swifts Creek & Omeo reports on the development of the family business.

Stephen’s father, Laurie, initially trained as a blacksmith wheelwright, started the business. In the 1950’s Laurie worked with the CRB on the spray gangs and drove trucks around Ballarat. He worked on the White Swan Dam, Ballarat and on the Altona & St Kilda breakwaters carting rock.

He had a small quarry at Wandin North but in the early 1960s he got squeezed out by Bayview Quarries at Montrose. His brother, a plumber, had moved up to Swifts Creek, in the former omeo Shire, east Gippsland. the local shire engineer told Laurie’s brother to approach him about coming to crush some river gravel as there was gravel but no-one to crush it.

Laurie moved up with a mobile crushing plant to Omeo along the Livingstone Creek. In those days he had a Lanz Bulldog tractor, 16 x 10 Primary, 14 inch Gyrex, bucket elevator with an inclined vibrating screen and a 4 wheel drive home made loader built on a Blitz x-army chassis powered by an Austin truck engine.

Laurie made the plant himself with the exception of the crushers. He moved around crushing at Ensay on the Tambo River, then moved to Swifts Creek on the Tambo. He moved to Bruthen near Ramrod Creek and then to orbost where he worked a quarry at Brodribb River beside the Princes
Highway.

Stephen, who is 60, left school at the age of 16 (1969) to drive loaders, and as an 18 year old, as soon as he had his licence, he was running the river stone plant at Swifts Creek for sealing aggregate production.

He lived in a caravan and went back to Orbost/Marlo on weekends. Laurie continued at Brodribb but finished up with the quarry in 1971 and the family moved to Swifts Creek to concentrate on crushing river stone from the Tambo River.

In 1980 the 50 acres at Tongio, Tambo River flats, 10km north of Swifts Creek was purchased for a base because of river stone on the land. River gravel would be sourced from various locations in the Tambo valley and deemed suitable by the then Lands Department under permits on Crown Land.

In 1997, the introduction of the extractive Industries Development Act 1995 highlighted a number of anomalies in that we had no formal tenure for river gravel extraction. Our approvals were granted for specific amounts from specific places along the river.

Suddenly it became politically incorrect, a bureaucratic nightmare between departments and possible Native title claims on Crown land meant extracting river stone gravel production ceased in the Tambo valley.

Late in 1997, unable to get any more river gravel, Stephen & Laurie approached the newly formed east Gippsland Shire to lease the quarry site at Bung Bung Lane, Benambra. Previously, Telstra when digging in a telephone cable, unearthed some rock which the Shire engineer had tested.

The east Gippsland Shire then purchased 9 acres of the land. Initially the rock was used by the Shire to open the road for Western Mining’s, Benambra Copper Mine in the early 1990’s. L&S Richards had crushed there in 1995 under contract to produce rock for the Shire at Bung Bung
Lane but for 3 years the quarry was not used.

With a lease in place in 1998 an extractive Industries Work Authority was obtained for both the Benambra Hard rock quarry and family owned Bindi Rd, Tongio for sand and gravel.

The materials crushed were used mainly in the Omeo Shire for road sealing aggregate. Stephen and Laurie also set up a small portable concrete plant and started using a mixer barrel in the back of a tip truck for delivery. In the early days, the onsite production of concrete tanks was popular and most concrete tanks seen in the district were made by L&S Richards.

Septic tank installation and the supply of drainage aggregate was also an important part of the business. Now plastic tanks and the introduction of a sewerage scheme at Omeo has reduced demand for 20mm aggregate.

In 2000 the introduction of GST saw the name changed to Richards Quarries & Concrete and Laurie supposedly retired from the business aged 74 years.

The rock at Bung Bung Lane Quarry is Ignimbrite created by a volcanic explosion from Mt Bung Bung. the current site is 9 acres with rock going down to a depth of 150+ meters. With a mobile primary crusher set up at Benambra, rock was initially carted down to Swifts Creek some 50km.

Later, a crushing plant was assembled at Benambra and rock is now crushed on site. Never ones for buying new or “off the shelf” Laurie & Stephen are true inventors and recyclers setting about building up the crushing plant as it is. Drilling for water was done to no avail but they found the rock goes down a long way.

The rock at Benambra has an LA of 9 and is an excellent A grade sealing aggregate. It’s a high quality building rock being naturally flat faced, mostly with parallel sides, and has been used locally and in the snow fields of Mt Hotham and Dinner Plain. Recently large amounts have been used on house projects on the other side of the mountain at Harrietville and Myrtleford.

The concrete plant was at Bindi Rd, Swifts Creek but a new plant was installed in a disused gravel pit on the outskirts of Omeo and a bore was installed with good water. This site cannot be viewed from the main road and the nearest house is about 1km away out of sight.

Stephen, like his father is one who can fix most things and if he doesn’t have it he can make something to keep the wheels moving. He has been in the quarry industry all his life. Stephen is a founding member of the CMPA but a distance of 400km from Melbourne with one employee makes attending meetings difficult. He is an avid reader of quarry related and old machinery material.

60 Seconds with a voting member . . .

What is your name?
Stephen Richards
Who do you work for?
Richards’ Quarries & Concrete, Swifts Creek
How many years have you worked for this business?
44 years
How many years have you been involved in the Industry?
44 years.
What is your role?
Owner/manager in partnership with my wife
What does your job involve?
Managing day to day, operating the crushing plant, deliveries, batching & delivery of ready mixed concrete, maintenance and everything else in between.
What is the best part of your job?
Producing materials that improve the local community; working in a small regional area; direct contact with customers and working away from the office.

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